Car-coupling.



H. R. SWAN, Sn. GAR COUPLING.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 14, 1913.

1,120,562 Patented Dec. 8, 1914 c2 WITNESSES INVENTOR a HEN/PYR 5W/ /Y5R W By M W ATTORNEYS HENRY ROSWELL SWAN, sn, or HUNTINGTON, WEST VIRGINIA.

Specification of Letters Patent.

CAR-COUPLING;

Patented Dec. 8, 1914.

Application filed November 14, 1913 Serial No. 800,979.

To'all whom it may concern Be it known that I, HENRY ROSWELL SWAN, S12, a citizen of the United-States, and resident of Huntington, inthe county of Cabell and State of West Virginia, have invented an Improvement in Car-Couplers, of which the following is a specification.

My present invention relates to car couplers, my object being to provide an arrangement including certain novel details of construction whereby a gravity latch member may be utilized upon the tail of the knuckle and the parts moved to and from closed position without the destructive friction and danger of breakage existing in couplers at the present time, and a further object of my invention is to provide certain connections by means of which the latch member when raised will be automatically held in such position.

In the accompanying drawings, forming a part of the specification, Figure l is a plan view of a draw head, partly broken away and in section to illustrate the knuckle and its latch member. Fig. 2 is a vertical longitudinal section through the parts shown in Fig. 1 and taken substantially on line 2-2 of said figure. Fig. 3 is a partial transverse vertical section through the parts shown in Fig. 1, taken substantially on line 3-3 of said figure, and Fig. 4 is a detail perspective view of the knuckle removed.

Referring now to these figures, the drawhead A is substantially hollow in order to provide for the movement therein of the inner portion of the knuckle B, the latter being of solid structure and connected to the draw-head by the usual knuckle pin C. The upper and lower walls of the draw-head A are provided with the usual central openings a and a respectively, the functions of which are well-known, and in accordance with my invention the lower wall of the draw-head is also provided with a substantially rectangular opening a adjacent its side wall (6 toward which the inner tapering tail portion 6 of the knuckle B projects, it being noted that this tail portion 1) is substantially elongated so that its inner end bears against an inwardly projecting portion a of the side wall a when the end hook (Z of thelatch member D is in engagement with the lower wall opening a and the coupler parts are in locked position. The wall a also has the usual inwardly projecting portion with which the body I) of the knuckle engages in closed position and the rock on the tail 2) to an extent sulficient to permit its hook (Z to descend into and ascend out of, the lower wall opening a as will be seen by a comparison ofthe full and dotted lines in Fig. 3, the hook end of this latch member having a slot to receive the end link of a pull chain or lever E and having a transverse pin (5 whereby the pull chain or lever may be engaged and held, it being noted particularly from Figs. 2 andB that this pull chain or lever extends outwardly through the upper wall opening and is provided with a ball E of considerable weight whereby when the latch member is raised and the weight E falls to one side of the opening a upon the curved upper wall of the draw head, the latch member will be held in raised position. It is to be understood, however, that the weight of ball E is only suflicient for the purpose stated, and is not such as to prevent it from being jarred into the upper wall opening when two couplers come together, and which it is intended it should do in order to allow the latch member to drop and latch the parts.

As will be noted particularly from Figs. 1 and 3 the hook end of the latch member D is laterally extended in a direction toward the outer end of the knuckle in order to form a shoulder (Z adapted to engage the inner side face of the body 6 of the knuckle B, when the latch member is raised to the position shown by the dotted lines in Fig. 3 and thus limit such upward movement of the latch member and prevent its hook end from engagement with the upper wall of the draw-head during the swinging movement of the knuckle. Thus it will be apparent that the coupler is opened from a closed position, as shown by the heavy lines in Fig. 1, side view of same being shown in Fig. 3, to an open position, as shown by dotted lines in Fig. 1, by the one operation r of pulling the chain or lever, which extends extension, a latch member mounted on said outwardly through the opening a in the tail extension adjacent the said shoulder 15 draw-head A. r

Thus it Will be seen that the construction from its side adjacent the knuckle shoulder 5 presented by my invention afiords strength and adapted to engage the face of the and will be effective and durable in use for vknuckle body when the latch member is the purposes before stated. i raised, andmeans for raising the latch mem- 20 her and swinging the knuckle.

HENRY ROSWELL, SWAN, sR.

Icla1m: The combination of a draw-head having 10 an opening through its lower Wall at one side of its center, a knuckle pivoted-in the draw-head and having a reduced tail extension and a shoulder at the inner end of said R. F. ADAMS, E. S. DooLrrTLE.

Copies 'otthis patent maybe obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of I atents Washington, D.'0. p l i and having a shoulderextending laterally v I 

